Morata warning affects livelihoods

Letters

I write to seek further explanation on the presence of the polio virus in my part of the community.
I am a resident of Morata Four, in Port Moresby, and for decades we have been using the swamp and it has become part of our daily lives. Morata has a couple of ponds, the bigger is fed from a sewage outlet and small ponds formed by rain. The swamp itself runs from the city to the main pond.
The news report (The National, Oct 26) quoting Dr Luo Dapeng, of World Health Organisation, should be qualified and accepted only after further tests along the river and rainwater ponds where fish are caught and kangkung are farmed.
Testing the sewage ponds containing human faeces released from the city, and then restricting residents from harvesting and fishing in rainwater ponds do not help much.
The publicity has had damaging implications, therefore before a story becomes public, proper testing and consultations should be made with the concerned community for the purpose of awareness and prevention of disease.
Simply testing one spot of the ponds at Morata or Waigani and then making a blanket announcement of the test results, affects the livelihood of many people.
For more than 100 families, their only source of income from fishing and farming kangkung has now been condemned. The families affected have now lost income and food on the table and their struggles have become even more difficult.
This week, I saw children being given double doses of the polio vaccine in the area, added with heavy police patrol chasing and threatening farmers in their kangkung gardens in fresh water ponds along the new Gerehu-9Mile freeway.
Swimming, fishing and eating kangkung along the Morata swamp is an everyday life and it cannot be stopped forcefully because of an isolated test result.
For the benefit of the community, please WHO and the NCDC health division, conduct proper tests in all ponds and the swamp before warning people against using the swamp. Morata 4 has a population of more than 3000 people. It has been without a proper water supply for more than 10 years.
We have survived the cholera outbreak, malaria outbreak, and outbreak of other serious diseases, and polio is no different.
Finally, a question to the Moresby North-West MP and NCDC governor: When are we getting our water supply?
You continue to ignore us, and we continue to bathe and drink polio-infested water.

Rongehe Mereho
Morata 4